Our Efforts to Revive Trade at Seme Border, by Customs Controller
Comptrroller Nnadi
By Francis Ugwoke
For importers and customs agents, the closure of border stations by the federal government for some years before reopening it recently has been a nightmare.
Even at that, importers and customs agents are still bitter since importation of vehicles and rice through the borders remains forbidden.
The policy which the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari said was to check smuggling activities and also force Nigerians to patronize their own products had collapsed many businesses at the borders.
The Area Controller of Seme Border, Comptroller Dera Nnadi mni told members of the League of Maritime Editors who visited him that on assuming office in January this year he discovered that many of the customs agents were not operating.
Nnadi said that on enquiry, he discovered that 18 licences belonging to the agents were dead, adding that only three licences were operating.
He disclosed that to address the problem, he had to embark on calling a meeting of the agents to get a true picture.
The Controller said he had to swing into action to ensure that the situation improved for the command to generate revenue.
Nnadi said: “When I reported here, there were only three clearing licenses that were still operating. You will hear some agents tell you that our members died, agents that were doing very well, stopped doing well. Things were not easy.
I reported here January 23, only three licenses were operating. So anytime I’m sending documents, it was the same three licenses, so I called the technical supervisor. I said, ‘what is going on here? He said Oga that is how it is. I said how many licenses are here? He said, everybody stopped work because nothing is going on, so they couldn’t even renew their new licenses. I said, okay, do you know what you’re going to do for me, can you give me the list of those licenses? So he gave me a list of 18 licenses, all dead. He said, these are the licenses that are registered under Seme. I said, okay, give me the phone numbers that are there, form a WhatsApp group with them, and add me. He did, he came here, I caught three or four of them, I said well, I don’t have time to start calling all of them. You go and call the rest, send them messages, tell them that the new Area Controller wants to revive this place, but we can’t revive here without license operators, and I can’t collect revenue without reviving this place. So we started encouraging them. Well, I’m happy to announce that as at three days ago, we have 27 licenses renewed. I have to do that because one, they’re the ones that will get the job and pay the revenue, isn’t it? Without them, there’s no revenue”.
The comptroller further disclosed that he also had to encourage the agents to take advantage of export trade opportunities to remain in business.
He explained, ” When I arrived newly, and informed them that, ‘look, there’s a new federal government policy that lifted the ban, that is, Schedule 6 Item 8,which says “you cannot export what has been imported into Nigeria”. But under the new arrangement, if you go to federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja, you can get approval, with that approval, you can export goods and pay2.5% of the current value of that good. However, the process of obtaining that thing means that you have to go to Abuja. So if you have to export every time, you’ll keep going to Abuja and coming. So I called a meeting here and I made a public appeal, that if they can ease that process for the agents here. Some of them have obtained that approval, and we’re trying to encourage them”.
The Controller said that following his intervention, the situation has continued to improve in the Command with rising revenue.
He added, “Some of them started coming and that’s the result you are seeing on this revenue board. That’s the result you are seeing here, if you look at that board, you will see what it was in January when I came. I want you to look at our VAT, for instance, look at the quantum leap from VAT from N14 million in February for instance, to N101,000,000, to 85 million and then to 140,000,000. Look at ETLS, from 248,000,000 in February to 472,000,000, to 539,000,000, to 507,000,000, so there has been steady increase. It may be slow, but my joy is that we’re making steady progress. Look at even the total revenue collected, from N130million overall in January to N64million in February, why? Because of the anxiety over election. But immediately after that, it came to155, then 147, then to 211,000,000. Well, you may think this is not up to what one SGD will pay in the seaport. But for us, it’s a steady progress that we are making. And I am excited about it, very excited in the sense that my revenue target for the year is N1, 960,000,000,which is almost N2billion for the year”.
Ends.
For importers and customs agents, the closure of border stations by the federal government for some years before reopening it recently has been a nightmare.
Even at that, importers and customs agents are still bitter since importation of vehicles and rice through the borders remains forbidden.
The policy which the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari said was to check smuggling activities and also force Nigerians to patronize their own products had collapsed many businesses at the borders.
The Area Controller of Seme Border, Comptroller Dera Nnadi mni told members of the League of Maritime Editors who visited him that on assuming office in January this year he discovered that many of the customs agents were not operating.
Nnadi said that on enquiry, he discovered that 18 licences belonging to the agents were dead, adding that only three licences were operating.
He disclosed that to address the problem, he had to embark on calling a meeting of the agents to get a true picture.
The Controller said he had to swing into action to ensure that the situation improved for the command to generate revenue.
Nnadi said: “When I reported here, there were only three clearing licenses that were still operating. You will hear some agents tell you that our members died, agents that were doing very well, stopped doing well. Things were not easy.
I reported here January 23, only three licenses were operating. So anytime I’m sending documents, it was the same three licenses, so I called the technical supervisor. I said, ‘what is going on here? He said Oga that is how it is. I said how many licenses are here? He said, everybody stopped work because nothing is going on, so they couldn’t even renew their new licenses. I said, okay, do you know what you’re going to do for me, can you give me the list of those licenses? So he gave me a list of 18 licenses, all dead. He said, these are the licenses that are registered under Seme. I said, okay, give me the phone numbers that are there, form a WhatsApp group with them, and add me. He did, he came here, I caught three or four of them, I said well, I don’t have time to start calling all of them. You go and call the rest, send them messages, tell them that the new Area Controller wants to revive this place, but we can’t revive here without license operators, and I can’t collect revenue without reviving this place. So we started encouraging them. Well, I’m happy to announce that as at three days ago, we have 27 licenses renewed. I have to do that because one, they’re the ones that will get the job and pay the revenue, isn’t it? Without them, there’s no revenue”.
The comptroller further disclosed that he also had to encourage the agents to take advantage of export trade opportunities to remain in business.
He explained, ” When I arrived newly, and informed them that, ‘look, there’s a new federal government policy that lifted the ban, that is, Schedule 6 Item 8,which says “you cannot export what has been imported into Nigeria”. But under the new arrangement, if you go to federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja, you can get approval, with that approval, you can export goods and pay2.5% of the current value of that good. However, the process of obtaining that thing means that you have to go to Abuja. So if you have to export every time, you’ll keep going to Abuja and coming. So I called a meeting here and I made a public appeal, that if they can ease that process for the agents here. Some of them have obtained that approval, and we’re trying to encourage them”.
The Controller said that following his intervention, the situation has continued to improve in the Command with rising revenue.
He added, “Some of them started coming and that’s the result you are seeing on this revenue board. That’s the result you are seeing here, if you look at that board, you will see what it was in January when I came. I want you to look at our VAT, for instance, look at the quantum leap from VAT from N14 million in February for instance, to N101,000,000, to 85 million and then to 140,000,000. Look at ETLS, from 248,000,000 in February to 472,000,000, to 539,000,000, to 507,000,000, so there has been steady increase. It may be slow, but my joy is that we’re making steady progress. Look at even the total revenue collected, from N130million overall in January to N64million in February, why? Because of the anxiety over election. But immediately after that, it came to155, then 147, then to 211,000,000. Well, you may think this is not up to what one SGD will pay in the seaport. But for us, it’s a steady progress that we are making. And I am excited about it, very excited in the sense that my revenue target for the year is N1, 960,000,000,which is almost N2billion for the year”.
Ends.
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